1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an artificial honeycomb to be installed for use in beekeeping equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Artificial beehives to be installed for use in beekeeping equipment have conventionally been produced by fitting a honeycomb foundation preliminarily made of beeswax into a hive frame and hanging the hive frame vertically in a hive box. Honeycomb foundations are formed by swaging a thin plate with a press machine and thereby forming a number of shallow recessed portions including a hexagonal frame. In hive boxes with such a honeycomb foundation hung therein, worker bees form walls and therefore honeycomb cells on hexagonal frames all over the honeycomb foundation to complete a honeycomb. Honey is then stored in the honeycomb cells.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Utility Model No. 3120954
Beekeeping using such an artificial honeycomb foundation as mentioned above requires three to four months to form honeycomb cells on the honeycomb foundation to complete a honeycomb, and eventually starts to store honey after the completion of the honeycomb. Therefore, it takes a substantial period of time before stored honey can be harvested. This creates a problem of extremely low efficiency in honey production.
However, walls of honeycomb cells formed by honeybees are very thin, which makes it difficult to artificially produce a honeycomb equivalent to that produced by honeybees in a natural environment using easily deformable beeswax.